Joe Mullins is a senior forensic imaging specialist and an adjunct professor who aims to bridge the works of art, science, and justice through his work. At the New York Academy of Art, Mullins leads the Forensic Sculpture Workshop—an innovative program created in 2015 in collaboration with the New York City Office of the Medical Examiner. In this workshop, art students use sculptural techniques to recreate the faces of real, unidentified homicide victims, working with skull replicas from cold cases. These clay facial reconstructions, often called the “last-ditch effort” after other identification methods have failed, aim to restore the identities and stories of the lost.

In a recent project, Mullins partnered with the Canadian RCMP and the British Columbia Coroners Service to reconstruct the faces of 15 unidentified remains discovered across Canada, some dating back to the 1970s. The public is now being asked to help give these individuals their names back, and Mullins’ work stands as a testament to the power of combining artistic skill, scientific rigor, and human compassion to bring the missing home.

All picture credits go to Cpl. Charity Sampson.

Here is our interview:

Joe: Good morning. My name is Joe Mullins. I wear a lot of hats and titles—mostly as an adjunct professor at the New York Academy of Art and at George Mason University in Virginia. My full-time job is as a senior forensic imaging specialist with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

My background is in fine art and graphic design. Right out of high school, I spent two years at the Savannah College of Art and Design, focusing on painting, drawing, and sculpting. After two years, I moved back closer to home in Virginia and completed my degree at James Madison University, again focusing on fine art and graphic design.

Out of college, I worked in a graphic design firm in Arlington, Virginia. It wasn’t a great job—not inspiring at all for an artist. A friend of mine, who worked at that firm with me, eventually got a job at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He invited me over for lunch one day, and as I was walking back to his desk, I passed a man holding a human skull. That stopped me in my tracks. That was my introduction to forensic art.

Soon after, a position opened up at the National Center, doing more Photoshop work. But from day one, I knew I wanted to be a forensic artist. About six months in, a forensic artist position opened up. And here I am.

Fariha: That’s amazing. Truly the coolest job in the world.

Joe: It really is.

Fariha: One of the questions I had, coming from outside your world, is about the difference between 3D sculpting and 3D imaging.

Joe: That’s a great question. In my classes and workshops, we do everything using traditional clay sculpting methods. I describe it as creating a portrait from the inside out. It’s a combination of art, science, and medicine. The skull acts as the armature that supports the face. Working with the forensic anthropologist and facial anatomy, we build up the face by understanding the muscle attachments and structures that are the same in every human skull.

It’s not just about putting a face on the skull—it’s about putting the right face on the skull. Like in surgery, you need to understand what’s underneath before making any changes. It’s a meticulous process. Forensic art doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to be close enough to prompt someone to say, “That looks familiar.” That’s when we’ve done our job.

Fariha: I know that many of the reconstructions you worked on for Canada involved Indigenous individuals. Once you’ve laid the muscle down and built the structure, how do you bring in the element of ethnicity and ancestry into the reconstruction?

Joe: That’s another excellent question. I always start my classes by discussing the differences between ancestry, ethnicity, and race—terms that are often confused in the media. Ancestry is the biological information we’re given, such as Black, Asian, or mixed ancestry, and that’s what we work with.

When I create a face, I have to ensure it reflects that information accurately. If the final bust doesn’t look like the given ancestry—like if a Black, Asian, mixed female bust looks like an old white man—I’ve failed. The goal is for people to recognize the right ancestry at a glance. Ethnicity, which involves cultural factors, isn’t really part of the physical features we can recreate. So, for us, the focus is on ancestry and race.

Fariha: Does your class take reconstructions from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children?

Joe: Actually, at the National Center, we can only work on cases up to age 21. So the class in New York was created to address a real need: adult cases. Investigators often approach us for help with these cases, but at the National Center, we’re limited by our funding. That’s why we created these workshops—to train artists to work on adult cases and to fill that gap.

Fariha: That’s incredible. How did you end up working with the Canadian RCMP?

Joe: Charity Sampson was a student of mine in a forensic imaging course we run at the National Center. During a break, she told me they had lots of skulls in Canada and asked if I would be interested in doing a workshop. That’s how it started. She went back, pitched the idea to her supervisors, and they said, “For free? Sure, let’s do it!” So that’s how it all came together.

Fariha: That’s such a great story. How many faces did you reconstruct with the RCMP—15 or 16?

Joe: Typically, the class has 15 students, and I also work on one case. So, usually, we produce 16 facial approximations during the week.

Fariha: I was looking at the RCMP website and they have 11 reconstructions from this project. Were some already identified?

Joe: Yes. The case I worked on was identified while the class was still running. There may have been some other local cases filling in the remaining slots, but most of the reconstructions were RCMP cases.

Fariha: What are your biggest obstacles in creating and sharing these reconstructions?

Joe: There are so many challenges. Just in the US, there are over 2,000 medical examiners and coroners’ offices, each with skulls just sitting there—cases that have been frozen for decades. If they’re left long enough, they’re considered “forensically insignificant,” which is soul-crushing to me.

The biggest challenge is getting those cases seen and giving them a chance. The images we create are worthless unless the right person sees them. So spreading the word, sharing the images on social media, news outlets, and anywhere possible is critical. My mission is to clear the shelves of these offices across the US—two down, 2,038 to go.

Fariha: That’s an amazing mission. What are your hopes for the future of your classes, and how do you see technology evolving in this space?

Joe: We have to keep up with technology. Everyone asks about AI, but it’s not quite there for this work. It’s still more about technique than technology. My hope is that I’ve inspired some of my students to continue this work. I tell them that even if you take the computer away, you should still be able to do this with clay or pencil. Merging art with technology is the future, and I know that’s where we’re headed.

Fariha: I couldn’t agree more. There’s something special about the human touch—no AI can replicate that in a meaningful way.

Joe: Exactly. There’s an emotional weight and responsibility to what we do that no computer can replicate.

Fariha: What do you love most about your job?

Joe: Teaching, for sure. There’s a moment in every class—usually around Wednesday—when the faces start to come out of the clay, and there’s this stunned silence in the room. Seeing that moment, knowing I’ve inspired someone, is priceless. Another aspect is hearing from families and knowing that we’ve given them some answers. As John Walsh said, “Not knowing is a nightmare you can’t wake up from.” So being able to provide answers is incredibly meaningful.

Fariha: That’s powerful. What can medical students or doctors learn from your work?

Joe: I think surgeons would make great forensic artists! There’s so much meticulous detail involved. It’d be fascinating to watch a group of surgeons in one of my classes—they already have that understanding of the human form. The reverse—putting artists in an operating room—wouldn’t work as well! But there are definitely parallels. At the end of the day, both of us are working to protect or restore identity.

You can explore these and other cases on the Canada’s Missing website.

Bridging Art, Science, and Justice: Inside Joe Mullins’ Work in Forensic Facial Reconstruction